California Test Scores Show Narrowing Achievement Gap

The San Jose Mercury News (8/25, Noguchi) reports that data released this week from high school exit exams in California show that "for the first time," over 90% of the state's "black and Latino students passed both the English and math portions. ... The milestone comes five years after California started requiring students to pass the controversial test -- a breeze for most seniors, a burden for many traditionally left behind -- before they can graduate." The "encouraging" figures show that 94.6% of all students passed the test, and "numbers are steadily climbing among students at the bottom of the academic achievement gap that separates white and Asian students from black and Latino students."